Name: Aidan Frost
Alias: Aprozop
Age: 34
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Appearance: Unmasked. Aidan weighs 173 pounds, while he stands at 5'11. His build is fairly lean with some muscle definition here and there. Characteristic of his body are a few tan dots, very reminiscent of liver spots, a side-effect of his abilities. They are primarily located in his upper and lower back and are usually concealed, or rather - buried - by layers of clothes.
Personality: While far from being socially awkward, Aidan can be classified as a fully fledged introvert. He has no desire for validation and as such, he doesn't validate others either. As a college kid, he was always invited to parties and social gatherings by his small group of "friends", but he found them to be pointless and never attended them. After a while, his buddies abandoned him too and he was left to his own devices. Since he saw no reason to mingle with others, he developed a blunt sense of humor, calling the situation as it is and never making an effort to sugarcoat it. He is also an expert on snappy comebacks. His tone of voice is soft and stoic and he never shows signs of anger. Aidan can also be classified as a cynic, believing money and power to be the catalysts behind every criminal event, but never letting his initial assumption cloud his judgment.
Because he's a fan of literature, he often incorporates quotes from his favorite work and uses a variety of words that may not sound conventional in the 22th century. These speech quirks are not as noticeable as they sound, but whoever has encountered him has noticed a slight difference in his manner of speech as opposed to that of a normal, functioning adult. He can make an insult look like a slogan.
Aidan is not as outspoken as he initially appears to be. That's a farce, a fake shell that he has built to give the illusion of normalcy. Actually, Aidan doesn't have a strong opinion on anything. From a heinous act such as murder to a taboo depravity such as rape, he doesn't think anything of them. His main reasoning behind his crime fighting career is that he's a servant to the modern society, and the modern society generally frowns upon those things. So, he sees it as his duty to prevent them from happening. He uses brute force but not to the point where it becomes lethal. However, there are a few rare cases where he's willing to abandon his morals and indulge in murder if he sees no other way. Rarely.
If placed in a stressful situation, he can get flustered, noticeably so. He's used to winning most of the time, so when he's faced with a dead end he tends to overwork himself, causing his entire brain to trigger panic mode.
Quirks: He has a tendency to hum classic songs especially when he's performing mundane tasks. He also enjoys spending more time in his vigilante garb than he does in his casual, everyday attire. Based on the aforementioned, you could even argue that Aidan is Aprozop's alter ego, and not the other way around.
Likes: He enjoys literature and mostly spends his time off duty reading books. Sometimes, he does that when he's on duty too albeit only if the situation's appropriate (like, if he's in the middle of a stakeout and such). The nature of his job requires him to focus and keep a clear head 24/7, so logically he is far more receptive to secluded places where he can avoid noise as much as possible. Seeing as how his job plays a fairly big part in his life, it's fair to say Aidan likes it. However, this is not a case of an obligatory conformity. He truly enjoys beating the snot out of people and rummaging through their trash.
Fears: Not to seem hipster-ish, but Aidan is a man who has transcended fear. His entire life he spent in isolation, away from human interaction and surrounded by tools he was free to tinker with. He has made no effort in forming a genuine connection with another human being hence why he's not afraid of losing anything dear to him. Death doesn't bother him either and he's already accustomed to pain. Only little tidbit that could classify as a fear, if you reach enough, is that he likes to see things through. If he's in the brink of resolving a case or an issue, he would be extra cautious so as not to slip up in the process, at least until his work was done.
History: Aidan's father was a wealthy opportunist. He saw a world destroyed by metahumans, and sought to turn that destruction into profit. You could say that it's genetic as the events of how Aidan stepped into the superhero stage are quite similar.
From his early childhood, Aidan was a "boring" child. While everyone his age preferred to go swimming, Aidan was in his own flat exploring the world in his own way. His upbringing was faced with a serious case of parental neglect. He had to hop from one babysitter to another, and usually he had no problem with that. His passive attitude also made their job easier, so it's safe to say they loved Aidan, or at least loved the concept of Aidan. His precociousness began surfacing when he reached 12 years old, able to absorb knowledge that was way above his assigned grade. He skipped a couple of classes and earned a scholarship at the University of Cambridge where he studied Political Science. Keep in mind, he was still 17 at this point.
His weak relationship with his family turned non-existent quickly. At first, they'd call him twice a day for some awkward small talk and then they just stopped. Again, Aidan didn't mind it. He actually began seeing everyone as an obstacle and started living as a hermit. After noticing the existing power vacuum in Metropolis, Hub, Central, Gotham City and Bludhaven, he decided to quit university at the age of 20 and focus his studies elsewhere. He did extensive research on the history of the first generation of superheroes; Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman et cetera and even shed light on some new information. The existence of a vigilante named The Question piqued his interest. Aidan worked night and day and finally discovered pseudoderm - the chemical that The Question used to alter his appearance. Fashioning his iconic look, Aidan laid vigilante justice using a pseudoderm infused skin mask, however he found the removal process painfully excruciating and completely impractical. He used his father's connections to contact a chemist who was able to engineer aspects of the toxin, especially the
toxic part of it. What he created was a vial of pseudoderm that could be inhaled and that was stripped off it's dangerous properties. The experiment was successful and he was able to become a human pseudoderm, but with a few minor miscalculations that were not deal breakers in any way.
Shortly afterwards, he convinced the scientist who engineered the pseudoderm to undergo a brainwashing process, effectively incinerating all traces of having worked with Aidan. He initially took the identity of The Question, but opted to create his own legacy instead, deciding to switch to Aprozop before word of his appearance spread out. He worked as a freelance detective to ensure his vigilante work got the necessary funding and still does to this day. Aidan himself works as a mediator for a mystery detective, which in fact is Aprozop. He has an apartment in Bludhaven where he lives by himself.
Intrigued by the news of superheroes disappearing left and right, he hopped onto the case, easily considering it to be the most ambitious one in his career.
Powers: -
Ectodermal and Pigment ManipulationDue to inhaling a large dosage of pseudoderm, Aidan gained it's properties. That includes the ability to manipulate skin and the matter's natural coloring, including his
own. Simply put, Aidan can create extra skin that materializes wherever he wants it simply by concentrating long enough. He uses this primarily to create a skin tissue that covers his face and renders him unidentifiable (and gives him the appearance of having no face at all), but the ability is also useful in covering up flesh wounds and also serves as a light healing ability. Of course, he doesn't simply create skin out of thin air. He needs to absorb keratinocytes from another human body. Aidan can resuscitate the cells once they enter his domain, so the giving human body does not have to be alive, but the process won't work if the donor has been dead for more than an entire day. Once he deprives the donor from the keratinocytes, their skin becomes ashen and very easy to rip off. Prolonged use of this ability often results in inconsistencies in the skin's coloring, which explains the dark dots on his body.
His second power, which is closely related to his first, has to do with skin and follicle pigmentation. The sames rules that applied to his skin absorbing ability apply here. Once he absorbs another person's pigmentation, he drains their skin or hair color, depending on what he's aiming for. The catch is he can also
mutate pigmentation, giving it an unusual coloring like a crimson red or a dark blue, or hell, even pink, making his own appearance akin to that of an alien or a demon.
If he has absorbed enough keratinocytes, he can create layers of tissue that can replace fiber-based material, like the makings of a cloth. To put it accessibly, he can change the color of a cloth (or a fiber-based object) and it's durability by adding a layer of mutated skin to it.
Aidan utilizes his powers for two things; scare tactics and disguise. And no, before anyone asks, he can't change his facial structure. The power also doesn't work if the wound penetrates the epidermal layer. By that point, it's too deep to be closed by an epidermis and the user is advised to call out for professional medical assistance.
Strengths: From a physical viewpoint, Aidan is a viable threat to a mere human, or a group of ten, armed, mere humans. But, in a world where people can shoots laser beams out of their eyes, that's hardly an achievement. Rather, his strength lies in his mind.
Aprozop is measured to have genius-level intellect, able to construct contingency plans and come to a certain conclusion in a matter of minutes. He also is gifted with an eidetic memory or simply put, the ability to reconstruct previous events or locations in painstaking detail. His memory has not shown signs of faltering yet even though he's nearing his 40s.
Weaknesses: Other than the fact that he's a mere human in a world of Gods? Well, noise can be very distracting to him. As stated before, his style of combat requires his brain to be just as active as his muscles, so anything that can hinder his thought process may result in a fatality. He also prefers to work alone.
Skills: Aidan is proficient in hand to hand combat. His fighting style is mostly self-taught and is a result of him mix and matching certain moves from other styles which, in paper, it sounds like a recipe for disaster, but he does it so well that when put to the test, his motions flow perfectly and are in no way disruptive. The most prevalent style out of the mix is
Krav Maga.
Aidan is also very efficient when it comes to traversing different areas while on foot. He does that via parkour.
Other skills are lockpicking, cooking, hacking, creating materials via mixture of components and wound stitching, although the latter has not been useful since quite some time. He has picked these skills either during his time as a student or during his ongoing stint as Aprozop.
Rumors: That he's a supernatural entity. Aidan doesn't mind this rumor - in fact, he's the one who created it. In order to survive in a world filled with metahumans and literal gods, he pulled off a Batman trick and spread out false accounts that exaggerated his powers. Official story is that he's a wandering, faceless spirit who kidnaps evil doers and surgically removes their face, essentially turning them into mindless dolls under his control. Granted, not many people buy this story, especially ones who have had the fortune (or misfortune) of meeting him. Nevertheless, it still manages to scare off the petty crooks, especially those who are big on superstition.
